“We have not yet defined his price-tag. The offer we have today is $22m (€17.9m), that is what we informed Valencia of, as they have the priority. The idea is to close the sale after Carnival season.

“Whether or not he remains with us until December doesn’t just depend on Racing, so we’ll see in June. We are all very happy, the negotiations are at a very advanced stage.

“Now we’ll take a break, because we have to speak to Bahia Blanca representatives to define the missing details. We want to do things right.

“The fact he is one of the most expensive players in Argentina is down to the player, his family and his agent. The negotiations were intense, it took a while, but now we are very happy. It makes us proud that our players can go on to such important clubs around the world.”

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